House of Cards
by GhostsInDecember
Summary: Yaoi story with Shika. One sunny day at school the lazy Shikamaru approached the artistic Kazuaki, without hesitations they soon formed an unbreakable friendship, that develops to be something more.
1. The quiet moments on every roof top

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. Although some of these characters are mine, and some of the storyline (the orginal Naruto storyline is somewhat in here too xD)

It's a Fruit Basket crossover because... well you'll get to know why later xD

* * *

"...I don't think of being in a relationship right now... I'm sorry." Kazuaki Akiro said to a girl who just opened up her heart to him.

She said all kinds of things, the one and only important thing was that she said she loved him. But she wasn't the only one, Kazuaki was quite popular among the girls, he never knew why though. He didn't have any friends; he usually sat by himself. '**Friends, who need them?**' He always said to himself. All that he needed was peace and quiet, and he got that from painting. No one wanted to disturb him when he was working. They said he was so talented, an excellent artist.

The girl started to cry, her tears fell all the way from her eyes and down her pink cheeks. She was deeply hurt.

"Kazu-kun is kind, but deep in his heart he rejects people. Everyone says that. So being a normal girl is not good enough to be with Kazu-kun." She said and run away.

It was lunch time, meaning 45 minutes to do nothing, as usual Kazuaki sat on the roof top. Like many people he hated school, it's not like he had so much choice but to go. It was a Ninja Academy.

The wind blew weakly; it made Kazuaki's black hair move a bit. It was a beautiful day outside; the sun was shining, making everything warm. There were a few clouds in the sky, they where small and not as beautiful as they normally were.

There were some voices coming from behind, it was two boys. One of them was tall and skinny with his hair in a ponytail, wearing a small gray jacket and fishnet underneath. The other one was a bit fat; he had a bag of chips in his hands. Kazuaki had noticed in class that he was constantly eating. The skinny guy whispered something to the other guy. They moved closer to where Kazuaki was sitting.

"Hey, aren't you Kazuaki-kun? I'm Shikamaru Nara," he said and pointed at himself, "and this is Choji Akimichi." He smiled and sat down.

Kazuaki nodded. '**Why would they come here? Okay just act normal.**' he thought. Kazuaki couldn't help but to stare at Shikamaru, who seemed to not have realized it yet. He had his eyes closed and the wind was touching his face. A part of Kazuaki wanted to hold Shikamaru in his arms forever, but as always he pushed away those thoughts. '**Normal, my ass.**' Shikamaru looked so peaceful; he had a well shaped body and a sweet looking face.

Kazuaki quickly turned as he saw that Shikamaru was coming back to reality. The 13 year old boy was one of the laziest at the whole academy. Kazuaki took one last glance at Shikamaru and then to Choji, who had a sad expression because he didn't have any more chips.

"I'll go buy some more to eat." Choji said looking at the bag. Shikamaru nodded as a response. Choji went, leaving Kazuaki and Shikamaru alone. There was an awkward silence between the two of them.

"What do you think of girls?" Kazuaki asked out of the blue.

Shikamaru looked at him weirdly, before he answered slowly:

"Their troublesome...Oh look," he pointed to a cloud, "It's shaped like a sleeping bunny."  
"You have a wild imagination, it's a cat!" Kazuaki said and looked at Shikamaru in a funny way. Shikamaru couldn't help but to laugh of his statement.  
"It so ain't, it's a bunny. Can't you see the long ears and that little furry tail at the end? Cats don't have that."  
"Tsk, you are being stubborn now. It's a cat and nothing else."  
"What a pain..." Shikamaru mumbled.

They kept arguing about clouds until the bell rang; people were storming into the building, to make it just in time for class.

The last class for today was with Iruka Umino. He was yelling at that idiot Naruto for fooling around. He even had the annoying Sakura explain the chakra basics. Kazuaki sat alone at the back road, with a window to his left side. It was his favorite place in the classroom. Iruka closed his book; he was standing in front of his desk.

"Class, tomorrow is going to be the final exam. It would show who of you are going to graduate from the academy and possibly become Genin. So do your best."

Finally the day was over. Kazuaki tried to sneak his way out from school, but he didn't succeed. Girls came squealing after him. There were three main girl groups: the first one was Sasuke Uchiha fans, the second one was his fans and the third one didn't care. Lately his fans had become more and more obsessed with him, which made it harder for him to live his life in privacy. Some of them were even stalking him sometimes, like when he was shopping for groceries. Two girls would be standing behind a shelf, giggling and drooling over his beauty. He often told them to go to hell, but sadly it never worked.

A silver haired girl was only one inch apart from hugging him, Kazuaki panicked. He took his hands and pushed her away as fast as he could. There was something the girls hadn't figured out yet, he didn't like physical contact.

"Yuki, why did you try to hug him? You know we have a rule! Never touch Kazu-kun unless he makes the first move!" a girl behind her yelled, the rest of the girls agreed.

A rule, yes there was a fan club for him. They had monthly meetings, where everyone had to keep an oath. For them Kazuaki was their God. They would do absolutely anything just to be in the same room as him, breathe the same air as him and just be near him.

Yuki apologized; her long hair covered her watery eyes. Kazuaki walked outside with a non caring expression. He was used to this. Shikamaru was standing a bit away; he was with Choji and Kiba. They were laughing as they left. Kazuaki walked towards his house, he couldn't risk being late again. It was a quick 15 minutes walk if he took shortcuts.

He opened the front door. The house always seemed to be so quiet and peaceful, as if nothing bad ever happened there, but looks can deceive. Kazuaki only had an older brother, their parents were both gone. His older brother's name was Toma. The brothers didn't have a good relationship, in fact it was horrible, the reason Kazuaki couldn't be late was that Toma would intentionally beat him up. Kazuaki didn't stand up for himself, so he just let it happen since Toma was stronger than him. Toma had done this as long as he could remember. So Kazuaki had bruises all over his body, he tried to avoid showering with the guys after gym class; he didn't want them to look at him in another way.

"Hey, wolfie boy, you're actually right on time; congrats," Toma said as Kazuaki past him.  
"So did ya' crush any hearts today?" Kazuaki didn't answer.

He went straight up to his room and locked the door. His room was filled with paintings. On the easel was an unfinished piece from yesterday. It was a simple painting of the night sky. Almost everything in this room was simple, a bed with red sheets, and a window over the bed. The easel was in the center, a dresser in one of the corners. Next to his bed were two guitars, a grey acoustic and a black electric one that was plugged in an amplifier.

'**One more day, I can't manage one more day with that bastard! Toma is such an fucking idiot.**'

* * *

So this is my first story uploaded here on fanfiction. net :P And I hope you like it :3


	2. Luck only happens to those who needs it

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Kazuaki ran as fast as he could to school, he was an hour late. '**Why today?**' He kept asking himself. The school was right around the corner now; Kazuaki slid, making a lot of dust come up from the ground. The exam was probably already started. With his luck his turn would already be taken. He opened the door and hurried through. He stopped outside the classroom to catch his breath, he was panting heavily. Suddenly the door opened, Iruka looked surprised. He had a bunch of paper in his left hand and a pencil in the other.

"I was just going to look for you, it's your turn." Iruka said with a sloped smile.  
"Huh?"

Iruka showed the way to the classroom next door, Kazuaki's only choice was to follow. Kazuaki placed himself in the middle of the room, Iruka sat next to a guy named Mizuki. Mizuki was blond and had the same outfit as Iruka. They said he had to perform a Clone Jutsu. '**Easy enough**' Kazuaki thought.

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" there was a poof of smoke and five Kazuaki's was standing beside the original.

Iruka smiled and said with pride he passed. Mizuki stood up and handed Kazuaki a headband which the leaf symbol engraved in the middle.

"Now, you are going to wait with the rest of your class, for the last announcement."

It felt like the waiting took forever. Naruto had just come out, he was not looking happy. His normally hyper self was drowned into a deep depression. It looked like he failed that test once again. The only one left was Ino; her self-confidence was too high even now. Her long blond hair swayed as she left.

Sakura, Ino's biggest rival, hurried towards Sasuke, who looked annoyed by this. They constantly competed for Sasuke's affection, although Sasuke never showed any emotion for them.

A moment later Ino was back, she was followed by Iruka and Mizuki. Everyone sat down and their voices slowly ended up in silence. Shikamaru took a seat one row below Kazuaki's, Ino and Sakura fought for the spot next to Sasuke.

"Tomorrow we will be announcing who is going to be in the same teams. Therefore I'd like if you all were here precisely at 9 Am. Class dismissed." Iruka said and went with Mizuki.

Shikamaru turned and faced Kazuaki. Kazuaki noticed Shikamaru had a slight brown tone in his dark-grey eyes, he felt his cheeks get warmer and a desire to turn away. The classroom was getting emptier by the second. They were left alone again; Kazuaki's heart was beating faster. Both their eyes were locked in a gazing position. Time seemed to be passing unnoticed, Kazuaki didn't mind, even though this was a bit uncomfortable. Their thoughts were interrupted by the old janitor, who killed the light and locked the door. Locked the door?! Kazuaki panicked. '_**No**_**! Damn-it! Toma is going to kill me!**'

Kazuaki ran down the steps to the catheter, he carelessly tripped on the last step. Shikamaru was at his rescue, he grabbed Kazuaki with both his hands and landing with Kazuaki on the top to dim the fall. They both were lying on the ground, both surprised of what Shikamaru did. Shikamaru still had his arms around Kazuaki, their faces were nearly touching, their eyes met. Kazuaki quickly pushed Shikamaru away and mumbled thanks as he stood up. In his opinion too much had already happened, he was confused and scared at the same time. Shikamaru hadn't risen himself up yet, he was probably too lazy to do so. His eyes were closed, the tips of his thumbs and index fingers made a circel.

Outside the sky was still in a bright blue color, people were finished working for the day, and were on their way home to their families. Kazuaki envied these people; he thought they were lucky that had a family that cared for them. A family that would do stuff out of pure love for them.

"Kazuaki? What the hell happened?" Shikamaru asked in a strange voice.  
"How should I know? I tripped and you suddenly grabbed me... Anyway did you want to say something to me before we got locked up?"

Kazuaki glided down with his back on the door into a sitting position. Shikamaru cleared his throat before he answered.

"Oh, um... I wanted to ask how the exam went."  
"I passed of course," Kazuaki said as he looked at his left foot, where the leaf headband was tied.  
"Do you have an idea of how we are getting out of here?" Kazuaki added.  
"The best option is to crawl through the ventilation system," Shikamaru pointed to the ceiling, "if we stack at least two chairs on a table then we will be able to reach up."  
'**How come I didn't think of that?**'  
"What's the second?" Kazuaki asked astonished.  
"Breaking a window." Shikamaru answered a bit tired. He slowly rose himself up and grabbed a chair nearby.

Kazuaki slightly smiled as he carefully watched Shikamaru accomplishing his idea.


	3. The 'fire'

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own Naruto xD

* * *

Both the boys slid their way through the ventilation system. It was narrow and nearly wide enough to squeeze a teenager through. Blinded by the darkness Shikamaru led the way. Soon the darkness faded away as they crawled closer to an opening. Kazuaki felt his heart rise from excitement; he couldn't help but to smile. Shikamaru stopped; he raised his fist and hit the grid that blocked them from jumping down in the corridor. It hit the ground, Shikamaru jumped and laned on his feet without any problems.

"Why are you hesitating? Just jump already." Shikamaru asked bored.

Why Kazuaki was hesitating he didn't know himself. He placed his feet in the right position and slid through the gap, landing perfectly on the ground. Hopefully they would reach the exit before that too was locked. They ran around some corners and straight forward to find the door locked. All hope was gone. There was no way to open it, Shikamaru sighed and closed his eyes. Kazuaki manned up his arm and closed his eyes while he launched a punch in the wall, but instead of the wall he hit a fire alarm. He broke it and the alarm started howling like crazy. Surprisingly, the door clicked open. Shikamaru slowly opened it and held it up for Kazuaki. Fresh air hit their faces. A bit away they could see ninjas jumping on rooftops in towards the school. They had to make a run for it, so they wouldn't get caught.

"Smart move, Kazu..." Shikamaru said between his breaths.

Kazuaki felt he got redder in his face than he already was, and avoided any eye contact. He took some deep breaths to get control over his fuzzy mind. There was an available bench a little further a head, where they sat down. Apparently they had reached Konoha's park, everywhere was couples walking hand in hand, and some even had a dog or a kid with them. 10% of the couples were gay, and couldn't care less of what the people was thinking about them. Kazuaki admired them. He could never be able to do that, being so open about himself.

Shikamaru notice something was bothering Kazuaki, but didn't know if he was going to ask Kazuaki what was going on in his mind. But all Kazuaki did was stare blankly at the ground, how the hell was he going to avoid Toma? Today he would certainly get his ass kicked like a million times before.

"Why do you look so down all of a sudden?" Shikamaru decided to ask.  
"Why would I know? It's not my fault anyways..." Kazuaki more or less answered back.  
"What is not your fault?" Shikamaru was getting curious on his new friends background.

Weirdly enough, he wanted to truly know about Kazuaki. Most people were just tiresome, but there was something different with him.

"Nothing!" Kazuaki answered quickly and stood up.  
"Look, I need to go. We will see each other tomorrow..." he faked a smile and waved towards Shikamaru, and sprinted away.

Shikamaru was left there, he watched Kazuaki become more and more fader as he ran.

"Geesh... what a boy."

Kazuaki was standing in front of his house, a bit tense and scared. He opened the door only to find no one. Not a soul was waiting for him at the entrance, a small sparkle of hope lighten Kazuaki's face. No one in the kitchen or in the living room, the clock above the TV showed it was 6.03 pm. Toma was on his work now. Kazuaki grabbed with himself some food and went up to his room and locked it tightly. He ate and practiced on his guitar, he played only one song, and if he missed or was to slow he started all over again from the top. It continued like this all night, before he went to bed.


	4. Team 10's big surprise

**Disclaimer:** Naruto is not mine ;P But I think you knew that already xD

In this chapter the story becomes somewhat a bit weird. Just bare with me ok? It's going to happen anyways xP

* * *

Shikamaru woke up early this morning, which was very unlike him. He usually slept until his mother came and yelled at him. His mother's name was Yoshino Nara. She was a really pain in the ass sometimes, but she always listened to him and cared deeply about him. Shikamaru appreciated that and loved her very much. His mother always complained about Shikamaru being to similar to his father, Shikaku Nara. They were both lazy and unenthusiastic.

"Morning..." Shikamaru said as he sat down at the dining table.

Yoshino had made him breakfast as many times before. She was worried he wouldn't eat anything in the morning. The breakfast was a basic omurice (rice omelet.) Nothing fancy just plain simple. That he actually got something was good enough for him. Later on he went out and headed towards the school. He wanted to see Kazuaki's cute face again. Kazuaki was all that was in his mind right now, he didn't know why, even so he liked it. It had been a funny day yesterday, not the part where he was yelled at by his mother, but the part with Kazuaki. Or 'Kazu' as Shikamaru called him in his mind. Shikamaru walked happily on the road to the old rundown school.

Kazuaki was just lucky last night; Toma hadn't noticed he was late, really late. So he didn't get beaten again. A few meters away he saw Shikamaru and ran to him, but suddenly stopped. What was he doing? Running after Shikamaru, why? He made some space between them and walked slowly after him. '**We are going the same way anyway, so this doesn't hurt me. Or him.**' Weirdly enough no one came screaming behind him and tried to hug him.

In the classroom, as always he sat in the back row next to the window. Shikamaru was sitting in the middle row with Ino Yamanaka. Iruka was announcing who was in the same teams, Ino looked pissed off when Sakura Haruno came in the same team as Sasuke. People could almost see the electricity between them.

"Team 10 is: Kazuaki Akiro, Ino Yakamura-" '**No! Not with her!**' "Choji Akimichi and last Shikamaru Nara."

Kazuaki managed to suppress a smile; he was in the same team as Shika. That lifted his mood. A sensei came in and wanted team 10 to follow him. He was tall and had a big nose. Tan skin and very muscular. He led the gang to a room with a view over half of Konoha.

The man lit a cigarette and the four youths coughed and got watery eyes because of the idiotic smoke.

"Ah. My bad, my bad, I'm Asuma Sarutobi, in charge of team 10 starting today. I will be strict on you guys so be prepared!" the man said and paused. Choji let some tears out and quickly dried them away.

"Don't suddenly start crying! All I said was I'm going to be strict."  
"Your stupid smoke is making our eyes water!" Shikamaru defended. Asuma laughed and said they had to get used to it because he smoked a lot. He made them say something about themselves just to get to know each other. Ino was sitting close to Kazuaki, he didn't like that and moved further way, but she followed. '**Stop stalking me!**' he yelled in his head.

"Kazuaki Akiro, right? Let's hear about you, I'm curious it said on your file that you are an orphan and living with your brother. How's that going?" Asuma asked.

Kazuaki froze a few seconds not knowing what to say. He was absolutely speechless and looked down in shame. Asuma noticed Kazuaki's reaction and really wanted to know now. The others looked curiously at him too, it almost like they wanted him to rip up his heart and show them everything that was gathered in there, all the pain and the hate. Kazuaki avoided looking at either of them, before he begun to speak.

"Well... it goes, I guess." He was starting to feel sick and wanted to throw up, he really didn't want to talk about Toma.  
"I'm not going to dig into your past or present so don't worry I will only scratch the surface," Asuma laughed and smiled a bit. "so what's your hobbies?"  
"I paint, draw and play guitar." Kazuaki answered and continued to look at the ground. '**This is so fucking annoying!**'

Ino smiled happily and tried to hug Kazuaki, but he avoided it just barely. He couldn't be touched by a girl's middle body any near his middle part of the body, if he were to be touched he would transfer into a wolf pup. It was a curse that never could go away. Besides that, he absolutely didn't like to be that close to anyone. It made him freak out, that's why he avoided it.

"Please don't touch me, ever." He said weakly but very direct, only Ino could hear him and she looked hurt. Deeply hurt and she turned away facing Choji.

"You're quite artistic aren't you? Does that affect some of your jutsu's?" Asuma asked.

Kazuaki wanted to leave. But he realized he couldn't get away, which was starting to freak him out. He was frightened, why did Asuma-sensei want with all the information? Asuma didn't interrogate the others with dumb disguised questions like this. To answer Asuma, Kazuaki barley nodded. Asuma was quiet and somewhat staring at Kazuaki. '**What is he so afraid of?**' Asuma thought.

"So now we are going down to training field 15, so I can take an evaluating test on you guys." Asuma said since he didn't want to bother Kazuaki anymore.

At training field 15, Kazuaki stood leaning under a tree while the rest sat some meters away. Ino sometimes looked at Kazuaki; she tried to smile but turned forwards again. There was a bunch of rocks spread across the field and trees surrounded it. Asuma was explaining what to do and wanted them to manage everything as a team.

"Okay, start whenever you want."

The first task was this: Take a hat down from a pole which was clearly too high to climb alone, without using any jutsu's. Shikamaru grunted and walked to the pole, Kazuaki followed with the two others behind him.

"We could stand on each other, like on the shoulders, to reach it," Choji said and added: "I'm on the bottom."  
"I guess I'm the last one to climb, since I'm a girl and way lighter than you two." Ino said and pointed at Shikamaru and Kazuaki.

Choji stood with his face towards the pole; Shikamaru came and climbed up to his shoulders, and waited on Kazuaki who followed. Now they were three people and one person too short to reach the dumb hat, all three of them were holding on to the pole to not loose balance. Ino quickly climbed up; luckily she wasn't close to touch his middle section of the body. She grabbed the hat and started climbing down again. Unfortunately she grabbed around his waist since she lost her balance. There was a small poof and Kazuaki was gone, only his clothes remained. The three fell harshly on the ground. Asuma had followed their every move and held a snow-white wolf puppy. The pup growled and barked at Ino. Ino, who was busy with holding back her tears and wondered where Kazuaki had gone, didn't understand a thing.

"That was not going to happen... I'm sorry, but I had to catch Kazuaki before he fell." Asuma said and held the wolf up a bit.

Kazuaki kept yelling at Ino, he hated being in this form, it was humiliating. Ino finally managed to understand what the puppy barked and freaked out. Choji and Shikamaru were both in shock. Kazuaki managed to free himself from Asuma's grip and ran towards his cloths. '**Fuck! I'm going to become human soon and then I'm going to be totally naked!**' He thought and grabbed his clothes with his mouth, and ran into the woods.

"What the hell?" Shikamaru said and broke the silence.

* * *

As you might have guessed where my inspiration came from... if not, then I got that transforming idea from Fruits Basket.  
Things might seem dull right now... but I promise this story will become so much better :D


	5. An opening

**Disclaimer:** Do I really have to repeat myself? Well... Naruto is not mine.

* * *

Shikamaru woke up early this morning, which was very unlike him. He usually slept until his mother came and yelled at him. His mother's name was Yoshino Nara. She was a really pain in the ass sometimes, but she always listened to him and cared deeply about him. Shikamaru appreciated that and loved her very much. His mother always complained about Shikamaru being to similar to his father, Shikaku Nara. They were both lazy and unenthusiastic.

"Morning..." Shikamaru said as he sat down at the dining table.

Yoshino had made him breakfast as many times before. She was worried he wouldn't eat anything in the morning. The breakfast was a basic omurice (rice omelet.) Nothing fancy just plain simple. That he actually got something was good enough for him. Later on he went out and headed towards the school. He wanted to see Kazuaki's cute face again. Kazuaki was all that was in his mind right now, he didn't know why, even so he liked it. It had been a funny day yesterday, not the part where he was yelled at by his mother, but the part with Kazuaki. Or 'Kazu' as Shikamaru called him in his mind. Shikamaru walked happily on the road to the old rundown school.

Kazuaki was just lucky last night; Toma hadn't noticed he was late, really late. So he didn't get beaten again. A few meters away he saw Shikamaru and ran to him, but suddenly stopped. What was he doing? Running after Shikamaru, why? He made some space between them and walked slowly after him. '**We are going the same way anyway, so this doesn't hurt me. Or him.**' Weirdly enough no one came screaming behind him and tried to hug him.

In the classroom, as always he sat in the back row next to the window. Shikamaru was sitting in the middle row with Ino Yamanaka. Iruka was announcing who was in the same teams, Ino looked pissed off when Sakura Haruno came in the same team as Sasuke. People could almost see the electricity between them.

"Team 10 is: Kazuaki Akiro, Ino Yakamura-" '**No! Not with her!**' "Choji Akimichi and last Shikamaru Nara."

Kazuaki managed to suppress a smile; he was in the same team as Shika. That lifted his mood. A sensei came in and wanted team 10 to follow him. He was tall and had a big nose. Tan skin and very muscular. He led the gang to a room with a view over half of Konoha.

The man lit a cigarette and the four youths coughed and got watery eyes because of the idiotic smoke.

"Ah. My bad, my bad, I'm Asuma Sarutobi, in charge of team 10 starting today. I will be strict on you guys so be prepared!" the man said and paused. Choji let some tears out and quickly dried them away.

"Don't suddenly start crying! All I said was I'm going to be strict."  
"Your stupid smoke is making our eyes water!" Shikamaru defended. Asuma laughed and said they had to get used to it because he smoked a lot. He made them say something about themselves just to get to know each other. Ino was sitting close to Kazuaki, he didn't like that and moved further way, but she followed. '**Stop stalking me!**' he yelled in his head.

"Kazuaki Akiro, right? Let's hear about you, I'm curious it said on your file that you are an orphan and living with your brother. How's that going?" Asuma asked.

Kazuaki froze a few seconds not knowing what to say. He was absolutely speechless and looked down in shame. Asuma noticed Kazuaki's reaction and really wanted to know now. The others looked curiously at him too, it almost like they wanted him to rip up his heart and show them everything that was gathered in there, all the pain and the hate. Kazuaki avoided looking at either of them, before he begun to speak.

"Well… it goes, I guess." He was starting to feel sick and wanted to throw up, he really didn't want to talk about Toma.  
"I'm not going to dig into your past or present so don't worry I will only scratch the surface," Asuma laughed and smiled a bit. "so what's your hobbies?"  
"I paint, draw and play guitar." Kazuaki answered and continued to look at the ground. '**This is so fucking annoying!**'

Ino smiled happily and tried to hug Kazuaki, but he avoided it just barely. He couldn't be touched by a girl's middle body any near his middle part of the body, if he were to be touched he would transfer into a wolf pup. It was a curse that never could go away. Besides that, he absolutely didn't like to be that close to anyone. It made him freak out, that's why he avoided it.

"Please don't touch me, ever." He said weakly but very direct, only Ino could hear him and she looked hurt. Deeply hurt and she turned away facing Choji.

"You're quite artistic aren't you? Does that affect some of your jutsu's?" Asuma asked.

Kazuaki wanted to leave. But he realized he couldn't get away, which was starting to freak him out. He was frightened, why did Asuma-sensei want with all the information? Asuma didn't interrogate the others with dumb disguised questions like this. To answer Asuma, Kazuaki barley nodded. Asuma was quiet and somewhat staring at Kazuaki. '**What is he so afraid of?**' Asuma thought.

"So now we are going down to training field 15, so I can take an evaluating test on you guys." Asuma said since he didn't want to bother Kazuaki anymore.

At training field 15, Kazuaki stood leaning under a tree while the rest sat some meters away. Ino sometimes looked at Kazuaki; she tried to smile but turned forwards again. There was a bunch of rocks spread across the field and trees surrounded it. Asuma was explaining what to do and wanted them to manage everything as a team.

"Okay, start whenever you want."

The first task was this: Take a hat down from a pole which was clearly too high to climb alone, without using any jutsu's. Shikamaru grunted and walked to the pole, Kazuaki followed with the two others behind him.

"We could stand on each other, like on the shoulders, to reach it," Choji said and added: "I'm on the bottom."  
"I guess I'm the last one to climb, since I'm a girl and way lighter than you two." Ino said and pointed at Shikamaru and Kazuaki.

Choji stood with his face towards the pole; Shikamaru came and climbed up to his shoulders, and waited on Kazuaki who followed. Now they were three people and one person too short to reach the dumb hat, all three of them were holding on to the pole to not loose balance. Ino quickly climbed up; luckily she wasn't close to touch his middle section of the body. She grabbed the hat and started climbing down again. Unfortunately she grabbed around his waist since she lost her balance. There was a small poof and Kazuaki was gone, only his clothes remained. The three fell harshly on the ground. Asuma had followed their every move and held a snow-white wolf puppy. The pup growled and barked at Ino. Ino, who was busy with holding back her tears and wondered where Kazuaki had gone, didn't understand a thing.

"That was not going to happen… I'm sorry, but I had to catch Kazuaki before he fell." Asuma said and held the wolf up a bit.

Kazuaki kept yelling at Ino, he hated being in this form, it was humiliating. Ino finally managed to understand what the puppy barked and freaked out. Choji and Shikamaru were both in shock. Kazuaki managed to free himself from Asuma's grip and ran towards his cloths. '**Fuck! I'm going to become human soon and then I'm going to be totally naked!**' He thought and grabbed his clothes with his mouth, and ran into the woods.

"What the hell?" Shikamaru said and broke the silence.

* * *

If you wonder, I want Asuma to become a father-ish role to Kazuaki. xP


	6. The art of subconscious illusion

**Disclaimer:** Naruto... I don't own him or the story :P

* * *

Three days later after Kazuaki's secret was revealed to his teammates, he was sitting in his room playing on his guitar. His mind was no longer present; he was too caught up in the music that filled his ears like dope. Down stairs Toma had a bunch of "friends" visiting. They weren't truly his friends, more like too afraid to cross Toma's will. If they saw an opening, even a tiny little chance to get away, they would have taken it with no second thoughts. 0 % loyalty, 100 % obedience. Punishment for not doing as Toma ordered was being beaten, almost, till death. Kazuaki had to put up with a monster in human form, not literally. The tune of what Kazuaki was playing became more aggressive. Darker in a way. This was one of his ways of expressing his true emotions, that he normally was to incapable to get out. He knew this would make Toma's tick tock clock crack, but he couldn't stop himself. The metal melody was too appealing right now. It packed his head with too much noise, which made it more difficult to think. Kazuaki didn't want to think right now, just feeling the emotions in the music were all he needed for now.

Like he had predicted, Toma was pissed. Toma hated music, especially when the volume was too high and reached downstairs. The knocks on the bedroom door became harder by the second. If Toma felt like it, he could easily smash the door down. His big muscles weren't just for show. Kazuaki didn't stop like he usually did. Maybe Kazuaki had a death wish or something.

Toma started yelling curse words and hit a fist hard enough at the door that it left a bulge. Startled and a bit unsure, Kazuaki didn't know what to do. His fingers moved in a rhythm, grip by grip still no stopping. He could feel he was going to get an emotional breakdown. Starting hyperventilating and scared for his life, Kazuaki managed to lay the guitar safely down at the ground. Now Toma's words become clearer, he was threatening to break the guitar into splinters and burn it one cold winter day. Toma disappeared from the door; Kazuaki felt his breath come back again. He became a bit calmer than before and started inhaling deeper. But to his surprise, Toma had found a spear key and unlocked the door. Kazuaki's heart raced again. His brother's face showed his furious emotions. Panic rose higher inside Kazuaki. Toma glared and ran towards Kazuaki with his fist ready; giving a hit against the jaw. Kazuaki's head painfully hit the wall. As always he couldn't find the spirit to fight back. This was his worst nightmare. Toma pulled Kazuaki's shirt and tossed him down at the floor. Kazuaki winced. His left hand traced his jaw, it hurt so badly.

"I thought ya' knew better than this, pup! Going against me is not wise!" Toma hissed. His body trembled as he glared again.

'**He was more an animal than me!**' Kazuaki thought while he tried his best to control his physical pain. Toma's foot went flying through the air and gave Kazuaki a real kick in the stomach. Kazuaki cough up blood and desperately tried to get up, although the pain struck back leaving him vulnerable and defenseless, and his face revealed his suffering. He knew Toma couldn't care less about his feelings, but still hoped that this was the end for today. No more punching or kicking, no more hurting. For once, Toma did leave him alone, but not one of Kazuaki's best paintings. He held it up, to demonstrate his dominance, and broke it in half which made it a piece of junk. Kazuaki sank together, all of his artwork was a part of him, and now one of them was broken. Destroyed. _Murdered_.

He felt his rage waved throughout his body. Toma grinned with satisfaction, this time he might get a real battle. Kazuaki swayed up to his feet, trying to steady himself before he truly snapped. His head was filled with anger; memories of all the horrible days of his life blurred his vision. Hopefully he would manage to get out of here, alive. Still, in somewhat, one piece. His throat gave out a snarl. Toma got more interested by the second.

"Show me what ya' got, beast!"

Kazuaki focused chakra to his fingertips, he was about to use one of his self made jutsus. For too long he had waited to really test it out. He growled as he was quickly moving towards Toma. Toma'a reaction time was too slow to follow Kazuaki's speed. The chakra in Kazuaki's fingertips had to be placed on special points on Toma's head.

"Sougishiki setsunai nou!" Kazuaki yelled.

Toma lost his balance and fell down to his knees. Once the jutsu begun to work, he immediately started screaming and waved blindly with his hands. There was no escaping this jutsu once it was realized. Kazuaki nervously stared laughing; he felt everything was in control now. What he had been longing to do for so long, but never dared, had finally happened. He had fought back. Toma's mind was now no longer present until the jutsu stopped. That might take minutes or up to days or weeks. What Toma was experiencing was his own greatest nightmare, his worst memory of all time.

Kazuaki removed his fingers and took a step backwards. His eyes never left Toma. His memory tried to record everything that happened to his first test object. The agony that Toma felt was less than he deserved. There was no pity or mercy in Kazuaki's heart towards Toma. Sweet success.

Down stairs the air was tense, Toma's followers were uncertain if they were going to check out what all the noises were supposed to mean. Kazuaki snort and turned to leave, Toma was looking too pathetic now.

Through the window, the sun sent out its warm beams. The sun painted the sky with rich light colors. Kazuaki automatically went to the window and opened it up halfway. The cool fresh air forced its way in.

Toma had started panting heavily, his fist clenched in anger. With no second warning he was already on his feet and on his way towards the hypnotized Kazuaki. The window broke; Kazuaki had barely managed to avoid the danger. Blood dripped from the cuts on Toma's hand. The people outside got startled of the sound of breaking glass. In the element of shock, Toma continued. He lifted Kazuaki up from the neck and slowly moved him up and through the window. Struggling to get air and hanging from his neck, Kazuaki got paler as the seconds passed.

"Ya' know there's no use of fighting against me. We both know who's always winning," Toma hissed. "ya're a pathetic excuse of a _ninja_. Now why don't ya' just disappear, nobody wants ya' here anyway." He added harshly.

The witnessing people looked terrified and a little girl gave out a scream and took a solid grip around her mother's foot. Toma snorted and let go of Kazuaki's neck, he let Kazuaki fall down two floors. The ground beneath had pieces of glass sticking up and ended up being the landing spot. Kazuaki groaned and filled his lungs with air. It was unbelievable that he hadn't passes out yet. This was the first time Toma had become so extreme. His back had cuts, not deep cuts, but it sure hurt like hell. Little by little he tried to move his body. He couldn't stay there anymore. Falling down seven meters onto a ground filled with glass was not pleasant. The unwanted attention was still there, people started to move towards Kazuaki with amazement in their eyes. Surviving that was stunning. Kazuaki managed to turn himself and was standing on all four. He spit away the blood that filled in his mouth.

Toma was no longer standing near the window. He was probably gone down to his obedient pawns.

As people were getting closer, Kazuaki stumbled on to his feet. '**Where do I go now?**' The image of his new friends and sensei, team 10, came to his mind. Irritating enough, he had no idea where they lived. Ino was no good; Choji was...not the one he wanted to go to in this condition. That just left two options. But one of the options was probably busy with work. So there was just one person in Konoha he felt he could turn to.

Kazuaki started moving away from the crowd that was developing around him. He didn't want to make a commotion about this incident.

Later, he was still stumbling around in the streets and getting weird looks. Bleeding from the back and looking pale was probably not that common these days. Or any days. His eyes flickered trough the street looking for some hint to where he could find the face he wanted to see. Why did Konoha have to be so huge? Maybe it was time to start asking after directions. He cleared his throat and swallowed once. This was scary; he wasn't the one for talking to strangers. Strangers usually came to him.

One middleaged woman crossed his path, she smiled weakly to Kazuaki and her eyes were concerned. Her eyes looked similar to Shikamaru's, even the hair color matched. Her cloths weren't any special, typical mother like cloths. Could this be Shikamaru's mother? Kazuaki stopped and looked curiously at the woman.

"Oh my, I haven't gotten anyone to stop and look at me like that in years." The woman giggled teasingly. "Don't you look a bit familiar…? Who might you be, boy?" She made a thinking pose and scanned Kazuaki.  
"Kazuaki Akiro…" He answered, keeping it short. Her face lightened, she seemed to recognize his name.  
"Could it be that you're in my son's team? Shikamaru Nara?" Kazuaki was correct, how could he been wrong when he had spent the three days studying Shikamaru? He nodded as a response.  
"Well honey, I'm going to be honest, you look terrible. Where did you get this bruises and cuts? On the team picture you looked so much better. Probably that's why I didn't recognize you at once. Come, let's get you treated. I think Shikamaru is home playing shogi with his dad." She said and helped Kazuaki get going before he could say anything.

One thing for sure, he was going to see the right person.

* * *

Sougishiki setsunai nou = wake painfull memory. I'm not really good at written Japanese, so I guess this sentence is very incorrect :/ but I tried right? xD


	7. Wide eyed, panic on the getaway

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto

* * *

The last move on the shogi board was made by Shikaku, Shikamaru's dad. He was Shikamaru's toughest opponent. When Shikamaru played against Asuma, he always won, but like with his dad they talked about all kinds of things while the game was on. Right now the topic was his new team. Shikaku already knew Ino's and Choji's family, so this was mainly about Kazuaki and Asuma. Asuma hadn't mentioned a word about what Kazuaki was hiding, Shikamaru guessed there had to be some kind of a big secret that was become a hush hush subject. Shikamaru had tried to ask Asuma once, but Asuma changed the topic right away and left only "You will know when he wants you to." Suspicious, wasn't the feeling Shikamaru wanted to have around his new friend. Mixed with the suspiciousness, he already had tons of new and weird feelings for Kazuaki; he wasn't sure what to call them.

In the very Japanese house, with doors that had to be shoved to the side to open them up, Shikaku and he had been playing two rounds with shogi. The score was 1 – 1. The only woman in this house was supposed to have returned from grocery shopping by now. As usual she'd probably bumped into someone she knew and forgotten the time. She was such a pain, a scary pain to be correct, that had his dad whipped. He never fully understood why his dad married such a creepy woman. The older man always responded with "She has a gentle smile. Even the toughest woman will show her gentle side to the man she loves." Not the answer Shikamaru wanted. But in the end it didn't even matter, just simple curiosity that messed with his brain.

Shikamaru sighed as he leaned back to straighten his back. It was become stiff, so it cracked a bit too.

"Say, why don't you invite that Akiro kid over for dinner sometime...? I guess your mom is curious about your new friend. And she will stop bugging you for some seconds." Shikaku said in a mild tone.

He was more likely right that his mom would turn all her attention on Kazuaki, if he would come over, and not be scolding about whatever. Shikamaru saw potentially hope to not be her center of attention, but then he would feel sorry for Kazu who had to put up with her nagging too. Or not nagging, but her scary side, if it would come to that.

"Yeah sure... Sometime." Shikamaru mumbled thoughtfully. Shikaku gave Shikamaru a wondering look before he started cleaning up the shogi board.

Seconds later in the faint entrance of the whole house, their names were called by Yoshino. She wanted their help. Shikamaru snapped back to reality and muttered something about her being troublesome before he slowly walked towards her voice. Whatever she needed help with couldn't be a matter about life and death, right? Shikaku was three steps ahead of Shikamaru; he could hear the urgency in her voice that Shikamaru couldn't.

Yoshino had gotten a stronger man to help her get Kazuaki into the living room's couch. He had passed out few minutes after they accidentally met. She thanked the big man for all his help before he disappeared from the house. Although Yoshino was a strong woman, she didn't have four arms. On the kitchen bench were two full bags of food and other necessary items. For not getting the couch stained with blood, she had found towels and laid them under him.

A door opened and Shikaku and Shikamaru entered through it. In the hallway they met a stressed woman who was busy looking for a first aid cit. The two male Nara's stood there like question marks, wondering what she had called them for.

"What a drag..." Shikamaru muttered as he turned to leave.

He'd rather go look at clouds than stand there all day. Yoshino noticed this and yanked him with her to the living room, naturally Shikaku followed. The males got themselves a surprise. A beat up teenager, bleeding from uncared wounds and bruises in the face and arms, lying with his stomach down on the not matching couch. Kazuaki's low breaths proved he was still alive. He was pale as a corps and freezing cold. The black hair reached down over his closed eyes. Shikamaru moved to Kazuaki's side and gently touched his face. He could feel the coolness that escaped from the skin. The innocent face didn't move. As for Shikamaru, he couldn't help but to look worried. Yoshino asked, more ordered, Shikaku to go stable the groceries while she took care of the hurt one. Five slow breaths later, she was unbuttoning Kazuaki's shirt with Shikamaru's help. Now she could start with the pieces of glass that were scattered on his back. Shikamaru felt the need to protect and shield Kazuaki from whomever, whatever did this to him. This was not going to happen twice, even if he had to get veto powers over Kazuaki. Shikamaru kept helping his mom treat Kazuaki and was careful enough to not let the incident from the first practice happen, again. He knew Kazu hated it.

Hours later that day, Kazuaki regained consciousness. He didn't bother to open his eyes just yet. The warmth from the quilt held him down, as for the futon he was happy he didn't have to sleep on the cold floor. Kazuaki guessed what had happened after he had passed out. He was probably at Shikamaru's place, safe and sound from Toma. As Kazuaki lied still, he used his senses to find out the details his eyes wouldn't let him see. The pleasant aroma from cooking food filled the room like nothing else. Steady footsteps outside the room he was in and the creeks from the floor as the person walked, it was most likely a male from the heavy sound waves. A light propelling sound of a fan was rotating above him. Someone was breathing calmly and regularly on Kazuaki the left side. That someone probably wanted him to wake up and ask for answers. A chill waved through his body. Would he lie or tell the truth? What was he going to say? He needed a plan or an escape route. If he lied he had to make up a believable lie and if the lie failed, he would lose respect and trust among people. If he told the truth he had to open up everything that he had kept hidden for so long. Both choices were of equal weight. But what could he live with?

A sigh slipped pass Kazuaki's defenses. That was the sign of him awakening. No time to think. Stress took its hold around him. He opened his eyes and got a good look on the ceiling before he started hyperventilating. He shut his eyes close and focused on the other persons breathing. Skinny hands touched his face which caused him to flinch. The hyperventilating was making his head lighter. The hands slowly pulled away.

"Hey Kazuaki... The bad things are gone, you can calm down now." A voice said softly, perfectly hiding the scared to death part.

The voice, the voice... Who did it belong to? Kazuaki felt so disorientated. Nothing felt to be in its rightful place today. He decided to push that away and focus again on the persons breathing; mimicking it was harder than expected.

Finally Kazuaki had control over his body. Inhaling air deeply and slowly exhaled it again. He opened his eyes just to see the pair of familiar light brown once. They were worried and confused. Kazuaki broke their gaze as he slowly moved into a sitting position. His right hand moved instantly to his chest and felt fabric instead of skin. His body was wrapped up, so the bleeding would stop.

"Thanks for taking care of me..." Kazuaki barely managed to mumble, his throat was too dry to get it any better.

Shikamaru nodded once, '**Damn my curiosity!**' he thought and hoped Kazu would give him an answer for every question that was swirling around in his head. Unexpectedly Kazuaki started crying. The feelings inside him were overwhelming. The tears fell on his lap as he tried to hide his face by tilting it down. Shikamaru moved towards Kazuaki in an attempt to give him a hug, but Kazuaki grabbed Shikamaru's shoulders and held him away. His nails dug deeper in Shikamaru's skin as his grip got stronger. The black hair hid his eyes while he had his head was downwards the whole time. Unintentionally Kazuaki leaned forwards and lightened his grip; his face buried itself in Shikamaru's arms. His quiet sobs seemed like they would never stop.

"You're so troublesome... Your emotions are like a rollercoaster right now." Shikamaru said and chuckled, trying to bring the mood to a better level. He failed. "So... Will you tell me what happened when you have calmed down again?" he added softly in Kazuaki's ear.

The voice sent a little electric jolt in Kazuaki's stomach; he wouldn't deny that he liked Shikamaru's voice, his warmth, his scent, his strange and different personality. No it was more than that, he liked Shikamaru's whole package. He felt his heartbeat beginning to race; Shikamaru felt it as well and took Kazuaki closer. Both of the heartbeats got a little stronger.

"You don't have to, I just want to know." Shikamaru mistook why the heartbeat got faster. Probably easier that way, Kazuaki didn't want to talk just yet.

Somehow he started to calm down, his tears stopped floating down his cheeks and he was focusing on Shikamaru's breathing, mimicking it again. Neither one of them thought about breaking the hug. Kazuaki felt a new present standing outside of the room, but it disappeared to fast to register who it was. Nervous and flushed, Kazuaki started to regain more consciousness and realized how close the two of them were.

Two knocks came from the door, it startled them both. The good, safe feeling from the hug vanished as they got separated. Kazuaki felt the need to be that close to Shikamaru again. It was like a drug that had been lured into him and now he craved for more.

The woman he met on the street came in and held two trays with food in her hands. She placed them between the youths and sat down on the opposite side of Kazuaki. Kazuaki tensed a bit when she started examine him. The door slid open again, the masculine Asuma entered. He looked sort of angry. The expression didn't suit him at all. His face usually had a well placed smile on it.

"Kazuaki I think we really need to talk about this... situation." Asuma said with a serious tone and looked at the two people next to Kazuaki. Yoshino took the hint and left without a word, she had other things to do. She was a housewife for crying out loud. Shikamaru hesitated; he didn't want to leave, not now. Asuma gave him a look and walked closer.

"Are you ok? I mean you're beaten up, I can see that, but..." Asuma's voice trailed off. Sighing, he looked at Shikamaru before he shifted to Kazuaki. "Do you want him to hear this?" he asked. Kazuaki just glanced at Asuma. Wasn't it obvious that Shikamaru could stay and listen? Kazuaki had chosen truth. So he nodded once before he tried to find words.

"I caused trouble for him so I guess it's fair. And yeah I'm fine." Kazuaki answered a bit hoarse, his dry throat still wanted liquid. The left arm moved towards the transparent glass on his tray, he placed it against his lips and tilted it so the water moved into his mouth. It was half empty when he was done.

"Kazuaki... Toma can't continue like this, either he has to stop or you would have to move. What did you do that pissed him off more than usual?" Asuma thought it had been bad enough already, but the result of what Toma had done now was too much to overlook.

"I... erm... just played with my guitar a little too loud and... didn't stop when he ordered me to. And I sort of tried something on him." The last part was Kazuaki whispering, a little ashamed and a little proud of himself to have managed to use a jutsu on Toma.

Shikamaru sat quietly by and listened to the conversation that went on. He wasn't familiar with a male named Toma, so he guessed it had to be Kazuaki's older brother... and that Toma had a short fuse. Practically a ticking bomb that was loose in the streets. Now he knew that it was Kazuaki's only known family member he had to protect Kazuaki from.


	8. First chunin exam, Rules're to be obeyed

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto :]

* * *

Kazuaki, Shikamaru, Ino and Choji were standing in a room full of Genins from different Shinobi villages. Asuma had signed them up for the Chunin exam.

In the previous days, Kazuaki and Asuma had told the rest of the team Kazuaki's reason to just attend to the practices and not participate with three others until he felt ready, and Kazuaki had moved in with Asuma for a temporarily time. Ino and Choji understood everything perfectly. Somehow Kazuaki had made the team become closer than they were before. Even though their relationships with each other were a bit stronger, Ino still claimed to be the boss when Asuma wasn't around. And their effort in their work was as low as ever, Asuma found it easier to bribe them with food to get them to work, then nag all day.

As Team 7 entered, Ino ran over to Sasuke and hung her arms around him. Sasuke on the other hand looked annoyed and Sakura snapped at Ino. Kazuaki sighted with relief; at least he was left alone with the other boys. He didn't feel bad for Sasuke, but, strangely, he was grateful. The girls volume rose higher. Ino was a pig and Sakura had a wide forehead and was ugly. The normal 'fight for love' bitching.

"What, are you three going to take this troublesome exam, too?" Shikamaru asked team 7 in a bored tone. Choji kept on eating his chips beside him.  
"Hey, it's the idiot quartet." Naruto said in a normal Naruto way. Not any harm meant.  
"Stop calling us that. How annoying." Shikamaru defended.

That he even bothered was weird, it wasn't like him to care what people said about them. In the background Choji was still eating, the noise of crunching chips started to become disturbing. Ino claimed that Sasuke was hers, expecting her rival to freak out. Then, what happened next was a guy looking similar to a dog came towards them with his teammates.

"Yeah! Found you all!" he said lively. Kazuaki had seen this boy somewhere before, from school more likely. The name was Kiba or something. The once behind him were Hinata and the freaky bug boy (never got his name.) They were team 8.

"So looks like we're all here." Kiba spoke again.  
"Hello..." Hinata said shyly. She wasn't like the other girls Kazuaki had met, she was ok. And surprisingly she had her eyes on loudmouth Naruto. Bad taste in men. Hinata blushed when she noticed Naruto looking at her.  
"What? You thee made it too? Geesh..." Shikamaru muttered. Kiba ignored Shikamaru and started talking again.  
"I see, so all ten Genin rookies this year are going to take the exam. How far do you think we can get, Sasuke-kun?"  
"Hmph... You seem to be confident, Kiba." Sasuke replied, vexed.  
"We have trained like hell. We're won't lose to you." Kiba smiled slyly.

Things continued like that, Kazuaki didn't feel like stepping right into the conversation without an invitation. But then a strange guy with gray long hair came over, he had round glasses and asked them to be more quiet. He introduced himself with the name Kabuto Yakushi. Kazuaki looked at the others in the room; apparently they were all staring grumpy at the new rookies. Those ninjas were scary, Toma would have fitted right in among them, but Toma wasn't a ninja. He was a bad tempered kickboxer with a tiny nut as a brain, probably getting smaller by the minute. Kazuaki didn't grow more confident by looking at these guys, for all he knew they could have just marked who they were going after _first_ when they had the opportunity. Besides that, they were still all Genins, but some might be way much stronger than all the rookie ten put together and just hadn't tried the exam before. It felt eerie.

Kabuto started talking again, informing the newcomers with information on how the different ninja's were, and warned them again that everyone gets tense right before the exam. Kazuaki couldn't quite get why Kabuto was talking to them in the first place, he shouldn't really care about anyone besides his team and himself. Kabuto was just so odd.

"I'm warned you so that you won't get picked on." Kabuto said with a low voice. "But I guess it can't be helped though, since you are rookies who don't know anything." He added.

Sakura asked if this was his second time, but no this was his seventh. Strange, how could he have failed seven times on a row? Was the exam that hard? Or was he just a slacker? After a few seconds he held up some funny looking cards that were blank. How stupid, blank cards...?

Kabuto started explaining about his 'magical cards' called "recognition cards" apparently they had some information burned into it with his chakra. He placed the pile of cards on the ground. All the information he had gathered in the four years he'd been here was on it. '**Why would he share that information with us is he stupid or something?**' Kazuaki thought. Kabuto took one of the cards and placed a finger on the white side. Then he started spinning it while he added some chakra. Poff! On the card was a map over all the shinobi villages. Then he started to speak again. Kabuto was annoying; Kazuaki gave out a small sight. '**Can't the fucking exam just start already.**' Kazuaki grew more impatient, things went too slow today. Shikamaru gave Kazuaki a quick look before he glanced back at Kabuto. The rookies stood in silence as they listened to what the older guy had to say.

In not long, Naruto mumbled "Balance? Power?" Kazuaki guessed Naruto didn't quite understand what Kabuto was explaining about why they had the Chunin exam together with the others that weren't from Konoha. Sasuke asked Kabuto about Rock Lee, a funny looking guy in a green jump-suit, and Garra of the Desert. Garra was certainly very skilled for a Genin, he had been on a B rank mission and came home unhurt. Something about him was very intriguing. One thing that was strange about him was his tattoo on his forehead; "Love" it said. He didn't look like a hippie or someone who loved anything. All of a sudden, Naruto was acting like himself again.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I'm not going to lose to any of you! Got that?" Naruto yelled as the stupid, loudmouth he was, provoking everyone.

People just glared back at him. Creepy. Naruto just made everyone in this room his enemy. Sakura tried to cover for him and said it was all a joke and added that he was a complete idiot. Out of the blue some sound ninjas attacked Kabuto, who dodged it perfectly. But somehow the attack got his glasses to brake and made him vomit. Kabuto eventually got to his feat again. What an unusual day.

"Quiet down punks!" A voice from the other side of the room yelled. The voice got all the attention this time. "Sorry for keeping you all waiting. I am the examiner of the 1st test of the Chunin Selection Exam, Ibiki Morino." The man who spoke had scars on his face and looked very strict, probably why they had him as an examiner, to get some respect.  
"You three from Otogakure, do not think you can do anything you like before the exam. Do you want us to fail you already?" Ibiki pointed to the back where the attackers stood.  
"I'm sorry. I was excited, since it's my first exam." The sound ninja replied, slowly and emotionless.

Ibiki started babbling about a rule; it wasn't allowed to fight each other, unless given permission from the examiner. Even if the permission was given, it wasn't allowed to kill each other. And then he threatened everyone with failure if a person went against him. Ibiki was a real scare.

"We will know begin the first exam of the Chunin Selection Exam."

They were led into another room where the seats were numbered. Kazuaki got the number 37, right next to Gaara. He didn't look so friendly. The papers were already on the tables. When everyone was in their place, Ibiki started explaining the rules of this test. It was mostly about: Do not be caught five times cheating or you and your teammates will fail, and such.

"Begin!" Ibiki yelled, his voice echoed throughout the room.

Kazuaki glanced at the paper, turning it and started to read the first problem. He decided to skip it and went for the next. No use to waste time on something that he had no idea how to solve. He twitched when he realized he was unable to give an answer to any of the 9 too-difficult-to-be-true questions. Ino, Choji and Shikamaru, would they know how to solve the problems?

'**What a dumb situation... I'll get a zero and fail the whole team. Fuck!**' he thought and looked up from the paper. The red head next to him, Gaara, hadn't begun either. Stress started to mould inside of Kazuaki. How could he not cheat? He _had_ to cheat... but how? '**Think, think, think!**' His eyes looked up in the air. Spy? Use that new technique and spy on someone... no too risky. The examiners would easily notice what he was doing when it was in the air. But if he didn't make it _fly_, he could make it _crawl_. A snake would be perfect. Kazuaki flipped the paper to its blank side. He bit his index finger and blood came out. The blood hit the paper and he moved his finger and drew the outline of a slim snake on it. The finger moved to his tongue and got the blood licked off. He made a hand sign under the table and whispered something, careful not to be caught. The snake started moving, when it came to one of the corners, it slide out of the paper. Then the snake moved onto the floor. It made its way to someone's chair and slide up. The person wouldn't notice anything other than a new smell and a feeling of being watched. Well, they were already watched, so the person wouldn't think so much about that. Kazuaki's snake was soundless and went transparent, camouflaging itself with the colors of the cloths. '**So far so good.**' Kazuaki was certain no one had seen anything, although Gaara could have, but he looked sort of busy. It looked like he was in some type of thinking pose.

Now Kazuaki had to focus. He flipped the paper again and closed his eyes. The pencil moved in his hands. Writing down all the answers the snake could see. They were linked immediately when Kazuaki started focusing, but in time Kazuaki could master this jutsu and make it more effective, than it was now. Kazuaki opened his eyes again and ended the jutsu. The snake was disposed under the person's chair. All that was left of it was Kazuaki's blood. Hopefully Kazuaki had gotten the right answers. He took one last look on the problems. 1 – 9. How long was it to the 10th was given? This took too long. His eyes narrowed and glanced up at Ibiki. Was he hiding something?

Shikamaru and Choji got their answers from Ino, who had used her mind transfer jutsu on Sakura. She was unable to do it to Kazuaki without getting written down, since he sat two rows behind her and on the other side of the room.

A guy behind Naruto got caught; he and his teammates had to leave the room. They didn't look pleased with him at all, their reeking anger was suppressed by their face, but not in their eyes. Naruto looked like he was going to wet himself. Kazuaki kept studying the others, but was also careful not to make it obvious. 16 teams had failed already; he wasn't planning to get his team to fail just because he was bored.

45 minutes had passed. Ibiki wanted all the attention again.

"Looks like we've already dropped the incompetent ones. I will now give the problem, since 45 have already passed." Ibiki said, "Okay, I will now give the 10th problem!" his voice rose higher, probably one more effect to get this whole first exam to become frightening. '**Finally...**'  
"But before that, there's one more thing I must say... There will be one special rule for this last question." Ibiki continued. "I will now explain. This is... a hopeless rule."

Kazuaki raised one eyebrow. '**Hopeless?**'

"First, you are all going to choose if you wish to take the tenth question or not. If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero. In other words, you will fail. Your teammates will fail along with you."

Kazuaki moved his eyes to see the reaction of his team. They looked surprised, like the rest of the room was.

"And here is the other rule. If you choose to take it and get it wrong, you will... lose the privilege to take the Chunin Exam forever!"  
"What stupid rule is that!? There are still those who have taken the exam before in this room!" Kiba yelled. The puppy on his head barked. All Kiba was doing was making Ibiki chuckle.  
"You were unlucky. This year, I am the rule. That is why I gave you the option of quitting. Those who are not confident can choose not to take it, and take the exam next year or the year after that." Ibiki chuckled again.

'**What is with him and those rules? Seriously, he isn't right in his head.**' Kazuaki thought suspicious. '**However, since he **_**is**_** the examiner... He speaks the truth right? If we were to fail the 10 question, we won't be able to take the exam, ever again... That means the other questions were just a fraud. They weren't truly needed. How cruel.**' Kazuaki was becoming afraid, he didn't want to quit the exam, but he didn't want to ruin their chances of passing.

There was a short silence, but long enough to get someone's thoughts straight.

"Let us begin. Those who will not take this question, raise your hand." Ibiki said.

If one in the team raised their hand, then the rest would follow, Kazuaki was certain of that. Well, Kazuaki wasn't going to be that person. Whatever the 10th question was he could surely take it!

"After we confirm your numbers, we will have you leave."

Another silence. One chose to leave, the person was sitting right next to Naruto. He was the icebreaker, more people quit after him. The surprisingly, Naruto started to raise his hand, not like him, but just to slap it hard on the table, that was more like him.

"Screw you! I'm not going to run away! I'll take this problem. Even if I become Genin forever, I'm going to become Hokage no matter what anyway! I'm not scared!" Naruto yelled pissed.  
"I will ask one more time. This is the choice that will impact your life. If you want to quit, now is the chance." Ibiki said.  
"I'm not going to take back my words. That's my ninja way." Naruto said confident. Naruto was quite special, an idiot, but he was one of a kind. His words made an impression on everyone. No one decided to quit after Naruto's little speech, so now it was down to 78 students.

Ibiki looked at the examiners; they smiled and nodded to him.

"Nice determination. Then... For the First Exam, everyone here... Passes!" Ibiki finally said with a nicer tone than before.

Some of the Genins didn't grasp why they passed and why they had to take the nine questions. Ibiki explained it easily; the nine questions were to test the skills to gather information, since of course, the question was beyond Genin level, there for they had to cheat. The 10th question was just a two-choice question, and didn't really exist, take it or leave it. Naruto was acting like he knew all that.

They were interrupted by the second examiner, Anko Mitarashi. She made a big entrée, which was supposed to have gone better. Anko was surprised by the large number of Genins left, and said she was going to make half of them fail in the second exam. The rest of the details was going to be explained the next day and dismissed them.

Team 10 went home to Kazuaki, Ino wanted them to celebrate. Asuma wasn't going to be home now, so their house was the perfect one. Ino was speaking highly about how she felt about the first exam, and wondered if she was going to ask the rest of the rookies to come and join them. She just wanted quality time with Sasuke.

"Why bother... They probably need to relax like we do. Taking time-off is necessarily sometimes, Ino. Don't make it more troublesome than it already is." Shikamaru tried to make her reconsider, but she was too stubborn.

The boss had made the decision, again. Kazuaki didn't bother to argue with her. Somehow he always lost. Ino was quick with her preparation for the guest. The rookies had accepted the invitation with ease. Ino placed her hands on her hips when she was finished. Music, double amount of snack (because of Choji, she had learned how much he ate during a day.) and soda. She had created a party place for young teens within an hour. Flowers from her shop were perfectly placed around the living room. This was probably not a good idea, but who could stop Ino when she was already burning with passion?

* * *

Yeap... There you got the First Exam. I got a lot of help from the anime on this, I didn't quite remember all that happend. :/ I'll start working on the next chapter after I have seen some movies and are finished with the last tempel in The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess. (It'll be done in no time, it's weekend so xD) and Otanjoubi Omedetou Gozaimasu! Pein-sama/Konan-san 3 [20.02.2009]


	9. Hide and seek

The guests had arrived and was already started to feel like home. Kiba was as loud as Naruto when he spoke. Kazuaki was still bothered with this idea; he hadn't asked permission from Asuma. Ino couldn't care less about what Asuma was going to say, she had her mind full with dumb-ass Sasuke. Not surprisingly, Shikamaru looked like he was falling asleep on the couch. Choji had his hands full with snacks and was joined by Hinata. She rarely spoke. Sakura gave Ino death glares over Sasuke and Ino copied her. Shino sat quietly by, letting his bugs do what they always did in plants. Kazuaki focused on the music that was playing in the background. Cherry Saku Yuuki by An Cafe.

Ino interrupted him by standing up and said it was time to play a game. Hide and seek. She turned off the music and chose Naruto to be the first seeker. Everyone had to participate. Kazuaki had the big advantage here. Ino blindfolded Naruto and made him count to 60. In three seconds everyone was searching for a good spot to hide. Kazuaki went slowly upstairs, no need to rush. He had the perfect place in mind already. The storage room. A lot of boxes and there was a closet right next to the door. When the door went in, it would hide him perfectly in the space between the wall and the closet.

"Hey, Kazu... You know of a good place? I rater not be the first one to be found, you know." Shikamaru asked softly behind him. Kazuaki reacted without thinking; he turned and grabbed Shikamaru's hand, dragging him to the storage room. Kazuaki closed the door behind them and pointed to the corner he had been thinking about.

The room reeked soap like always, even though it was filled with dust. Asuma avoided cleaning in here, it was too much dust and he thought it would just end up being a bad circle. Cleaning, re-dusting, cleaning, re-dusting. He really didn't see the point.

"It's big enough for the both of us..." Kazuaki noted, but they had to stand tight together. Shikamaru went in first and motioned Kazuaki to follow him.  
"Ready or not, here I come!" Naruto yelled from downstairs.

Kazuaki made a quick move and was standing with his back up against Shikamaru. Now they had to wait. Wait in the uncomfortable silence. Kazuaki felt Shikamaru's slow, warm breath against his neck. He could feel his own heart start to thud harder. The cheeks got hotter as he tried to think. Fuzzy and disturbed thoughts were not easy to get straight. Kazuaki shut his eyes. In this room time seemed to move slowly. The thin bright colored walls made it easy for them to hear the dangers outside, but it could, as easily, be reversed. Kazuaki cursed his mind for getting him so worked up by just standing near Shikamaru. But it was better if he blamed his problems on Ino, who had set up this game. '**What does he think of me?**' he thought, hoping the answer wouldn't be what he feared.

Shikamaru was standing still and relaxed. He was, by Kazuaki's calculations, 5 centimeters taller than Kazuaki, in the few weeks that had passed Shikamaru had grown a bit.

One thing that made this even harder for Kazuaki to keep his focus was that the only thing Shikamaru had underneath his small gray jacket was a fishnet top. That meant he was millimeters from touching Shikamaru's skin. His sweater was the fabric that was between them.

Naruto ran in the hallway, opening rooms to find the rookies. He was getting closer to the storage room. The laugh he gave the ones he found was exited and confident. Of course he would find everyone. Maybe he could even prove to Sakura that he could go as a reliable tracker one day instead of just Hokage.

The door went open, as Kazuaki had predicted, it hid them. The douche went further in and moved aside some boxes to see if anyone was hiding there. Kazuaki pressed himself more into Shikamaru, like there was a venomous snake right in front of him ready to strike at any time. Shikamaru's left index finger moved to Kazuaki's lips and indicated that he had to be quiet and not move, or they would be discovered. Naruto sighed when he realized there was no one behind the boxes and left the room.

"He probably won't be back here..." Shikamaru whispered when it was safe. He took away his finger and smiled slightly. "So you can relax now." Kazuaki nodded, but didn't move.  
"You're not experiencing some bad flashbacks, are you?" Shikamaru had to ask since Kazuaki hadn't moved away from him yet. No response. "If you are... You know I'm here for you." He was about to wrap his arms around Kazuaki, but stopped when Kazuaki turned his head to look over his shoulder.  
"I'm sorry." Kazuaki mumbled looking a little scared and flushed. He took a step forward so Shikamaru wouldn't feel bothered. He turned to face Shikamaru with a shy smile.  
"What are you apologizing for?" Shikamaru smiled and took a hand and ruffled Kazuaki's hair. "Silly, you didn't get us caught or anything. But thanks to this place... we will have to wait a long time to be found. What a pain." Shikamaru said and sighed. "It would be lame if we went down there and said: Hi, here we are, can the stupid game stop now?" Shikamaru's tone was getting a bit nervous.  
"Say, Shikamaru, what do you think of me?" Kazuaki managed to ask and blushed instantly.

Shikamaru was a caught off guard, struggling for words. He wasn't sure what he thought since the feelings was hard to describe, it was even harder to get any words out from his mouth.

"Err... em..." he finally got out. Taking one hand behind his neck he began to laugh nervously. The blushing glowed on his cheeks like a burning fire. "Um... you're my fellow team member, my friend, a very good friend too." He wanted to add more, but those things were too embarrassing to say. Or to think.  
"Nothing more?" Kazuaki asked a bit disappointed. Shikamaru read him easily and took his hand down again.  
"Sure there's more... That was just the main things. I thought it was easier to say them... first." Shikamaru said softly, looking down to see if his feet were still there. '**I'm so the number one coward.**' Shikamaru thought grievingly.

Kazuaki stood there in silence waiting to see if Shikamaru was going to say anything more. They both felt the awkward atmosphere. Apparently, Kazuaki was the one knowing his true feeling. The problem was that he was too uncertain about how to make the first move and too scared of the thought of rejection. Sure he had refused to go out with girls many times, probably too many, but never been the one _being_ rejected. Turning again, he faced the door that just smacked up again. Surprised as ever he just stood there, listening. Two sets of footsteps were walking around and a dog barked.

"Akamaru says they are here somewhere... His and my nose is not _that_ good yet to tell exactly where though." Kiba said with his familiar voice.  
"But I searched here a couple of minutes a go." Naruto whined.  
"Then you didn't do it right, idiot." Kiba said and softly hit his fist against the top of Naruto's head. Naruto responded with a huffy look.  
"Close the door... We don't want them to have a chance to get away now, do we?" Kiba said, laughing.  
"Sure..." Naruto said eying Kiba.

Kazuaki were completely silent hoping dumb Naruto wouldn't look their way. His hopes were all in vain. When Naruto closed the door, he mistakenly happened to look straight at them and started laughing.

"Of course they are in the place where I didn't look. Found you!" He managed to say in between his breath. Kazuaki sighed while moving forwards. Shikamaru on the other hand, was relived the game was finally over.  
"Naruto, how do you always end up looking stupid? You could have found them earlier and we wouldn't have gone through all this trouble." Kiba nagged followed by a bark from Akamaru.

* * *

So.. umm... I was thinking, I'm not gonna make two 12/13 year old boys do "it" so in not long I'm gonna have a timeskip and change from a Third-Person View and to Kazuaki (I-person view o.O?) it's gonna be a lot easier to write his feelings and such. If you wanna complain or something like that it's ok x] AND just for the record, I like getting reviews :D


	10. Time takes us all

Timeskip ;D and SPOILER'S FOR NONE MANGA READERS (sort of)

Disclaimer: Like I own Naruto =___=; no one in Akatsuki would have died if I did.

* * *

At the end of the whole Chunin Exam, the only person who became Chunin was Shikamaru. Kazuaki had lost the match in the elimination rounds, same with Choji and Ino. But to everyone's surprise Konoha was attacked by Orochimaru. The Third Hokage did everything he could to stop Orochimaru. Taking Orochimaru's arms with him in his death was the result, and Orochimaru fled with his subordinates, there was nothing more here to do.

Kazuaki was ready to give up being a ninja, he wasn't fit for it. He was a born artist not a battle machine. In Konoha's recovery period, he resigned. The Third's funeral was held, Kazuaki was asked to play a respectful solute for the Hokage along with some other musicians. Asuma said he understood perfectly his reason for leaving the team, but it was a shame to waste a good ninja. Ino was pissed, Choji understood and was supportive, Shikamaru didn't say much.

Two weeks after the funeral, Kazuaki met with a manager. The manager said he had a band that was missing a guitarist and recommended Kazuaki to show up on the audition. Kazuaki talked with Asuma, who was happy to hear this, and they discussed the matter. It was a great opportunity for the young boy, although it was a bit early for him to become a public icon. Asuma stated that Kazuaki always had a place to come back to whenever he wanted to.

Kazuaki took the risk and played one of his songs for the band called House of Cards. The members were three years older than Kazuaki. House of Cards had a beautiful front figure; the vocalist was a curly blond girl, with the most enchanting brown eyes. The down side about her was that she used her looks to get everything she wanted. The rest of the band members were boys, the atmosphere around them were heavy. Respect. They usually played rock and bended it to be metal sometimes. But to have the stunning voice to match, they had to work and perfect themselves to reach her tones.

The band's reaction surprised Kazuaki. They were amazed and shocked that a 13 year old boy could play better than the previous guitarist. But they weren't sure he could take the PR pressure, since the paparazzi's would stalk him everywhere after the public announcement. Kazuaki managed to convince them he could take it, so they let him join. Now the band, with its 5 members, left Konoha on touring. Along the way they made two records, Kazuaki saved them some money by designing the covers by himself. A Live DVD was released along with the same tracks on a CD. The fans were happy and screamed their lounges dry on every concert. But in all of that luxury, Kazuaki felt he missed something, he wasn't happy.

Five years had passed, Kazuaki had just turned 18. The band had been through a lot, and sticked together in thick and thin. They had become like a family and knew a lot about Kazuaki's previous life. Kazuaki had learned to control his wolf problem, if he wanted to turn he just did, his body had learned how to hug women which was a huge relief.

After being on different tours along with new bands, forming good relationships with people in the same business, House of Cards felt they needed a break. Taking the summer off to be with loved ones, they meant they deserved this. The press were notified, the manager had strictly told them to stay away if they didn't they would be sued.

Kazuaki was unsure of where to go; he hadn't seen any of his previous friends in Konoha for so long. His feelings for Shikamaru had just become harder to live with; it was painful to be away from his present. He hoped Asuma still had the same address.

Standing outside of the gates of Konoha felt strange, it made him anxious that he hadn't heard from anyone that lived inside. He took a deep breath and took one foot forward at the time. In the five years, Konoha seemed to have changed. '**What have I missed?**' Kazuaki asked himself. The guitar he always took with him hung around his shoulder. He took the normal route to Asuma's house. The house had changed too. It had a different color and had more flowers surrounding it. Knock, knock. Light steps got closer. The door opened. Kazuaki was surprised to see a dark haired woman and not Asuma. The woman's red eyes and her matching red lips, smiled to him.

"Who might you be?" She asked sweetly.

"Kazuaki Akiro. Does Asuma Sarutobi still live here?" Kazuaki said.

"Asuma..." The woman repeated hurt. "No, he passed away some time ago."

A little boy came running towards his mom; he was around 2 years Kazuaki guessed. The kid looked awfully a lot like Asuma.

"He is dead?" Kazuaki asked in disbelief. "Why didn't anyone tell me?" Kazuaki teared up.

"Hey... Kazuaki-kun do you want to come inside. Eeh?!" The woman seemed to have remembered something. "Could it be that you are the Kazuaki boy he always worried about?"

She took his hand and guided him into the living room, placing him on the couch.

"I will make you some tea." She said in a friendly tone and ruffled his hair.

The little boy looked puzzled by this sudden guest.

The woman introduced herself as Kurenai Yuhi, she was Asuma's lover before he died and had his child. Asuma died before he was born. She continued to update him with all that had happened in Konoha. Pein's invasion that nearly destroyed everything and that Konoha were almost finished rebuilding itself. She agreed on showing Kazuaki Asuma's grave later and give him his previous teammate's new addresses. All of them had moved out of their family homes and were living individual lives in the ninja society. Kazuaki noticed the house had many of his paintings hanging on the walls. It made him sort of happy, they weren't wasted.

"Beautiful aren't they. I have never seen such paintings before. Asuma always said they were made by someone special. Since they aren't signed I have no idea of who made them." Kurenai said when she noticed where he was looking. Kazuaki just smiled.

Asuma's grave where surrounded by flowers. Kazuaki guessed they were from Ino's family's flower shop. The light gray stone in front of him had Asuma's name engraved in it. It was difficult to stand there, looking down at his sensei's grave. Kazuaki gave his respects before he turned to leave.

Later that day, Kazuaki found himself in a bar, drinking. He wanted to calm his nerves before he went to visit Shikamaru. Now he was sure his love was one-sided, Kurenai had told him Shikamaru was dating a girl from the Chunin exam, Temari from Suna, sister of the Kazakage.

"Oy, are you a guitarist?" The bar owner asked.

Kazuaki nodded and placed his glass on the table.

"Can you sing too?" The bar owner grinned, it was an open night so anyone who wanted to perform was welcome to do so.

Kazuaki shook his head, he never sung for anyone. He hated using his voice as an instrument. The bar owner didn't take his words and literally pushed Kazuaki on the stage. Kazuaki glared at the fat, bald owner.

Of course he preformed, but he didn't feel like having lyrics so it was more a calm instrumental song. The effect of playing it cool got the bar more customers – mostly girls. They wanted more. Kazuaki didn't want to attract so much attention on his first day in Konoha. The women crowed themselves around the stage and begged for more. A boy with good looks and playing guitar was like a dream come true for them. He gave in and played another song, but this one had lyrics. His deep, rough voice made the women shiver with delight. More customers came in, lured by the music. The owner's grin had become wider; he made a good profit of having Kazuaki on his stage.

Three familiar faces entered the bar, wondering what was going on. Ino's blonde hair had grown longer, her face had become prettier. Choji was still fat and looked more like a teddybear than a ninja. Shikamaru's face had become more adult like, but it was still gorgeous, round his right arm a parasite hung. Temari. The blond bitch. His love-rival. Kazuaki held his focus on the music, making it stronger. He even flirted with the crowd. A couple of women in the front fainted; Kazuaki guessed they had a too light blood pressure.

Ino's eyes expanded in disbelief, she pulled Choji's shirt and said something to him. He immediately smiled his warm smile and passed Ino's words to Shikamaru. Shikamaru glanced surprised in Kazuaki's direction. Something made his heart skip a beat.


	11. Change in life

After three solo songs, Kazuaki thanked the audience for the attention he got and desperately tried to get out in one piece. But he couldn't walk one meter before pen and paper was poking him from everywhere. Autographs, of course they wanted autographs. The lucky ones, who were closest, giggled with their flushed faces. After a few seconds, a nice female bartender popped out of nowhere and grabbed his arm and led him out the back way, which was for employees only, but they made an exception for him. The bartender probably extended his lifetime.

"Thank you." Kazuaki said and laughed. This had been a wild night.  
"Those women could end up breaking things to get to you... so there is no need to thank me; I was just protecting the bar." She said and walked inside again.  
"Okay? No need to be rude." Kazuaki mumbled after her.

He checked his clothes to see if the crazed women had ripped them to make their own sick and twisted imagination come true. Nothing was terrorized; his punk style was not destroyed more than he wanted it to be. Kazuaki sighed with relief and walked out from the ally. But now he didn't know where to go. If his previous friends were still inside the bar, he had to leave them alone. The women would most likely strip him down when they laid eyes on him again. His right hand swung his guitar over his shoulder, inhaled and coughed.

"Damn smoke." Kazuaki muttered and coughed again, turning and faced a pair of bored brown eyes. '**Shika...**' He thought unsure of what to do. Then, Kazuaki noticed another thing that was new with Shikamaru. A cigarette in his left hand. Temari tilted her head and rested it on Shikamaru's shoulder. Kazuaki felt angry, but suppressed it. Ino walked past the pair and stretched out her arms and folded them around Kazuaki's neck. Such soft hair. Kazuaki hugged back and echoed Ino's smile.

"I thought you would never come back." She whined and let go.  
"Honestly, I didn't either." Kazuaki said and Ino hit his arm.

Choji snuck behind Kazuaki and surprised him with a good old bear hug. He was smiling and laughing. Shikamaru hadn't said anything yet. Temari introduced herself and wanted to shake hands, but Kazuaki said he didn't shake hands with people. Her eyebrows frowned, but she smiled to signify the excuse was accepted. Ino was exited and invited everyone to her place. On the way Kazuaki couldn't shake the feeling of being stared at. Ino was questioning about his touring life and Kazuaki automatically answered.

Ino opened the door and asked them to feel like home. Kazuaki looked around. It was a very open place, lots of flowers, big windows, modern furniture's, it mimicked Ino's personality.

Kazuaki sat down in the couch next to Shikamaru and Temari. He placed the guitar on the floor and felt a bit awkward. Shikamaru reeked of smoke and had kept quiet all the time.

"So, when did you get two together?" Kazuaki started, not liking the topic, but he felt there wasn't anything else to talk about.  
"Over a year ago..." Shikamaru said low, like he wasn't so proud of it. Kazuaki's eyebrows lifted.  
"I'm surprised you can be with a woman, you always said they were so annoying." Kazuaki laughed and Shikamaru smiled half heartedly.  
"Not only that, he intends to marry one too." Ino said behind Shikamaru and had grabbed his hand and shook it in the air.

There was a silver ring on one of the fingers, and a matching on Temari's. Kazuaki's heart sank. It hurt so badly. This was the last thing he had been expected. In his mind, Shikamaru could never have asked a woman's hands in marriage. It was wrong. It didn't match Shikamaru's earlier statements. Had he been lonely? Was that the reason for this unforeseen act? If he had made his move on Shikamaru would all this had been different? Kazuaki's mind was drowned in thoughts.

"Then I'm sorry for my late congratulation." Kazuaki said and faked a smile. Temari thanked him politely and kissed Shikamaru on the cheek. Kazuaki turned away and looked hurt. Choji was the only one who noticed that.

The night was getting older, Temari offered Kazuaki to stay with them for some nights. Their place was the biggest. Kazuaki wasn't sure if it was such a good idea, but he accepted it. They took off and said good night to Ino and Choji. Choji looked worried though.

Temari was a very forceful woman, and didn't take crap from others. Kazuaki learned that on the way to their home.

"This is the guestroom, where you will be sleeping." Temari gave Kazuaki a tour in the apartment. His room was well furnished and light.  
"Looks nice." Kazuaki said and went inside and tried the bed. Comfortable. Temari nodded and went to the living room. Kazuaki stationed his guitar on a desk before he turned to walk to the living room too, but stopped. Shikamaru and Temari were discussing things with low voices.

"... sure it is wise to have him here? There could be reporters all over Konoha by tomorrow." Shikamaru said.  
"He's your friend right?" Temari backed Kazuaki up.

Kazuaki felt sick, his one-sided love didn't want him here. He lay down on the bed, what was he going to do now? The eyes closed and he drifted to dreamland after 24 minutes.


End file.
